Musical drums have a long history of development and have advanced significantly in recent years. For example, snare drums date back at least to the period of the American Civil War. Snare drums became integrated as parts of drum sets in the early 1900s and have been a principal component of drum kits ever since.
The snare drum has a unique characteristic that involves the use of “snares” which are currently constructed using metallic wire for the most part. The wires or snares are stretched across the bottom drum head to produce a raspy tone that gives the snare drum its unique sound which is different from the tom-toms or bass drum of the drum set. The snare drum is essentially a tom-tom with snares added. Snare drums are commonly considered to be an alternative sound source that defines the natural accents of a musical composition.
For many years, the snare drum construction was essentially standard. The drum shell was made of either wood or metal and had between six and ten tension rods for tuning the drum head. The nature of the sound (known as the “timbre”) that is provided by a metallic shell is distinctly different from that provided by a wood shell. Metallic shells are typically tin or galvanized steel that produces more volume and sound projection than a wooden shell. More recently, the design of snare drums has become more sophisticated as various enhancements have been developed to provide different sound effects. One example is a cast drum shell made of a bronze alloy that has achieved considerable popularity. Other efforts have been made to use various metals such as copper, brass and titanium to control the timbre of the metallic snare drum while preserving the projection in tone.